Ellery stowell



(No Model.)

B. STOWELL. DEVICE FOR. HOLDING, DAMPENING, AND AFFIXINGSTAMPS 0R LABELS.

No. 427,527; Patented May 6, 1890.

M ON 2/222: l/VVE/VZf/ak 7'07 5 I 0 Wig/WW4 ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELLERY STOIVELL, OF DENVER, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-IIALF TO EMERY WVALTER JOHNSON, OF SAME PLACE.

DEVICE FOR HOLDING, DAMPENING, AND AFFIXING STAMPS OR LABELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 427,527, dated May 6, 1890.

Application filed October 1, 1888. Serial No. 286,878. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELLERY SrowELL, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Denver, in the coun ty of Arapahoe and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Holding, Dampening, and Aflixing Stamps or Labels, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to an improved construction and combination of devices for holding, dampening, and affixing in position upon another surface stamps or labels; and its objects are to provide a device for such purposes of simple construction, involving but few parts and those not liable to derangement or failure, capable of ready and easy operation and durable in use, and in which reliable provision is made fora supply of stamps or labels, their ejection as desired or needed, the application of the proper moisture to the gummed or to the plain surface, and the affixing of the stamp or label to the desired surface, provision for all these ends being contained in the one device and kept with ordinary care in condition for instant use.

To these ends my invention consists in the combination, in a single device, of a stamp or label receptacle, a plunger therein for forcing the stamp or label to its seat, and means for applying moisture thereto or to the surface to which it is to be applied, and, further, in the combination of a stamp or label holder, a plunger for ejecting the same and forcing the stamp or label to its seat, a reservoir for the dampening material, and means for forcing a supply thereof from the reservoir to the gummed or the plain surface; and, further, in the combination of a stamp or label holder, a plunger for eject-ing a stamp or label and forcing it to its seat, and a spraying or atomizin g apparatus; and, further, in the other features, arrangements, and combinations more particularly hereinafter described and claimed. 1

In the drawings are illustrated two forms of embodiment of the invention, both being unitary in principle and mode of operation, but differing in the arrangement of the instru -111entalities used.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side view or elevation of part of the device; Fig. 2, a section on the line y 3 Fig. 3, and a prolongation thereof; Fig. 3, a View of a modification, and Fig. 4 a top or plan view of a detail.

Hereinafter the word stamp will be used as typical of and including any form of stamp or label to be affixed to another surface.

In the drawings, the reference-numeral 1 indicates the stamp box or holder for containing the supply of stamps. Upon two or more of its upper edges it is provided with the outwardly-extending flange 2, while at two opposite lower edges it is provided with the interiorly-projecting flanges 3 3, upon which are supported and by which are retained within the holder the stamps 25. This holder 1 is then, as shown, open entirely at the top and open at the bottom, except in so far as it is closed by the flanges or ledges 3 3, which are just suiiicient for the stamps to rest upon at either their ends or their sides and be thereby retained normally within the holder. This stamp holder or box moves without a relatively stationary plunger, and the spraying or atomizing apparatus is mounted thereupon and within a hollow handle, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2. Referringnow to these figures, the plunger 4i is rigidly secured to and depends from a platform or table 14., in which are fixed and from which depend also the rods 6, around and upon which are the springs 8 8. Cut into the flanges 2 of the stamp holder or box are notches 27, in which such rods take, their ends 7 turning under the flanges to hold the box in position, the springs, whose lower ends take upon the flanges, holding the box away from the table or platform 14 so far as the ends 7 of the rods 6 permit. Then as pressure is applied upon the table or platform 1a the box is moved upward around the plunger t relatively to the table 14 and plunger, the box 1 of course taking against some resisting medium.

Upon the platform or table 14 is a handle composed of two sections 15 16, one-say 15- being rigidly secured to the table or platform, while the other 16 is hinged thereto at 17. This handle is hollow, and preferably oval in contour of cross-section, though it may be round or of any desired contour, though the able device for holding the two halves 15 16 together is used, such as a latch 18. \Vithin this handle is a table 21, intended normally to rest upon the table or platform 14, such table or base'21 having legs 22 extending down through apertures in the platform or table 14, such apertures being of a size sufficient to permit the legs 22 to easily move or slide therein and therethrough. Upon this table is secured the fluid-reservoir 12 of the atomizer 0r sprayer. Such securement may be directly thereupon; but that it may be readily re moved therefrom an indirect securenient is preferableas, for instance, by means of a case 23, formed upon the table 21, and Within which the reservoir 12 is secured. Upon one side of the case 23 the air-bulb 11 may be seated, though preferably, as avoiding friction of its projecting stem and button, hereinafter mentioned, upon the edges or walls of the slot through which they pass, it is secured upon a separate base or plate 24, rising from and attached to the table or platform 14. Upon the body of this air-bulb 11 is arranged a knob or button 20; or the same is arranged upon a plate lying upon and against the bulb, such knob or button projecting out through a slot, which slot may be along the meeting line of the two sections 15 16 of the hollow handle, so that the air-bulb 11 may be compressed and caused to operate on the liquid-reservoir 12 from without the handle. As thus arranged the air-bulb 11 and fluid-reservoir 12 are connected by a flexible air-tube 28, so that one may move independently of the other, though it is evident that if the air-bulb 11 be secured upon the same base as or upon the case of reservoir 12, so that the two move together, this connecting-pipe 28 may be a rigid or nonflexible one.

A spring 19 is interposed between the top of the reservoir 12 and the inside of the top of the handle, so as to keep the reservoir and its case normally down upon the table or platform 14. In this arrangement it is preferable that the legs 22 should be of a length a little greater than the distance from the normal outer limit of the stamp box or holder 1 from the table or platform 14. In the use thereof the stamp box or holder is removed by springing the resilient rods 6, with their bent ends 7, out of the cuts or notches 27, the stamps 25 being then placed in the box or holder with their blank or reverse sides toward the bottom of the box or holder, the box or holder being then replaced in operative position by snapping the rods 6 into the notches or cuts 27. WVhen it is desired to affix a stamp at any point, the device is held over such point or place and the knob or butten 20 pressed inward, causing the delivery via the tube 13 of the dampening-fluid either upon such place or upon the stamp. The

handle is thus forced down upon such place, the legs 22 striking the surface, with the result that the platform or table 14, the plunger, and the stamp holder or box are all moved toward the surface upon which the stamp is to be placed. The holder or box moves relatively 'to the plunger and therearound, bringing the end of the plunger upon the stamps and forcing the lower one upon the surface, to Which it adheres. Pressure down upon the handle being then removed, the handle springs upward, carrying upward with it the stamp box or holder and the plunger, the springs S at the same time forcing the stamp box or holder along the plunger until its movement is arrested by the bent ends '7.

The stamp-holder may be of any desired depth, the depth being dependent on the number of stamps it is intended to hold, and it may be of any suitable size and contour in cross-section, such size and contour corresponding to the size and shape it is intended to be used with.

\Vhen used for quite large stamps orlabels, flanges 2 maybe made upon every side of the holder or box and a corresponding number of rods 6 and springs 8 used, the number and size thereof being. proportioned, of course, to the size and weight of the stamp box or holder and the stamps to be contained therein and to the maximum number and weight it is intended to contain.

It is evident that if a flexible pipe 13 for the delivery of the spray Were. used the reservoir 12 could be fixed relatively to the handle and plunger; but, as more uniform and ef fective spraying or delivering of the moistening medium is obtained with a rigid smooth metallic delivery-pipe 13, I have preferred the construction shown; and, further, such pipe 13, instead of leading to only one point, may divide into two or more branches to insure delivery of the moistening medium at several points; or the end thereof might be carried around parallel to the bottom of the holder and perforated to deliver and distribute at several points.

The device thus constructed and operated attains fully and reliably the objects of the invention, as hereinbefore set forth, and that without the use of any intermediate moisturecarrying substance in the device'or the application thereof to either surface. It is also evident that the stamp and the surface to which it is to be applied may both be plain or ungummed surfaces, and the reservoir 12, instead of containing a mere dampening-fluid, may contain a liquid mucilage to be applied by the tube 13 to the stamp or the surface.

- Having thus described my invention, What I claim isp 1. The combination, in a device for affixing stamps, of a stamp box or holder, a plunger working therein, a base or platform 14, with which the stamp-box and plunger are connected, a liquid-reservoir, an air-forcing apparatus connected therewith, a hollow handle secured upon and above the base or platform 14, the liquid-reservoir and air-forcing apparatus being within such handle, and a delivery-pipe leading thence, substantially as described.

' 2. The combination, in a device for afiixing platform beneath and to which the plunger and stamp-box are secured, a hollow handle secured to and above said base or platform, a liquid-reservoir and an air-forcing apparatus connected therewith, both the last-named elements being within the hollow handle, and a delivery-pipe lcadin g thence, substantially as described.

3. The combination, in a device for aflixing stamps, of a stamp box or holder 1, a plunger 4, springs maintaining the box or holder and the plunger at the limit of greatest extension relatively to each other, aliquid-conveyin g apparatus consisting of a liquid-reservoir, an air-bulb, and a delivery-tube leading about to the bottom or below the line of the bottom of the stamp box or holder, and a hollow handle, within which the liquid-reservoir and airbulb are and from which the delivery-tube proceeds, substantially as described.

4. The combination, in a device for affixing stamps, of a liquid-conveying apparatus consisting of a liquid-reservoir, an air-bulb, and a delivery-tubc, a suitable base .or platform upon which the liquid-conveying apparatus is placed, a hollow handle resting upon the base or platform, and within which the airbulb and liquid-reservoi r are placed and from which the delivery-pipe proceeds, said handle being provided with anopening in the side adjacent to the air-bulb, a stamp-box and a plunger, both being secured to and beneath the platform, and springs maintaining the stamp-box an d plunger at the limit of greatest extension relatively to each other, substantially as described.

5. The combination, in a device for affixing stamps, of a liquid-conveying apparatus consisting of an air-bulb, a liquid-reservoir, and a delivery-pipe, a hollow handle, within which the air-bulb and liquid-reservoir are placed and from which the delivery-pipe proceeds, the handle being open on one side, abutton 20, connected with the air-bulb and projecting through the opening in the handle, a stampbox and a plunger adapted to work therein, both connected with and beneath the base or platform, and springs maintaining the stampbox and plunger at the limit of greatest extension relatively to each other, substantially as described.-

6. The combination, in a device for affixing stamps, of a stamp box or holder, a plunger adapted to reciprocate therein, springs maintaining them at their limit of greatest extension relatively to each other, a base or platform from which they are suspended, a divided handle secured upon such base or platform, an air-forcin g apparatus, and a liquidreservoir within such handle, and a delivery pipe leading thence, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ELLERY STOWVELL.

lVitnesses:

Z. F. WILBER, B. L. PoLLocK. 

